A 65-year-old American man has been remanded in custody for eight days after four kilograms of liquid cocaine were found in his luggage at Larnaca airport on Tuesday, in what is believed to be the largest such seizure of its kind ever recorded in Cyprus.
The Larnaca District Court ordered the remand after the man — a retiree who had arrived from Canada via Vienna — was stopped by a customs officer acting on the instructions of the anti-drugs unit YKAN shortly after 2pm.
During the inspection, officers found ten nylon packages containing a suspicious liquid substance, concealed inside plastic cosmetic containers. Further examination confirmed the substance was liquid cocaine with a total gross weight of four kilograms.
The find has put YKAN on alert, as processing liquid cocaine back into solid form requires a specialist laboratory. According to the source, investigations are now under way in several directions to establish whether such an illegal laboratory exists in Cyprus.
The man was arrested and, according to information available to Phileleftheros, is refusing to cooperate with police.
Liquid cocaine is prevalent primarily in Latin America. It is liquefied because it is difficult to detect, and requires specialist chemical processing to be converted back into solid form.
